Message to Game 3 winner: Congratulations, NBA champion

It's a blessing too, I suppose, this Game 3 Curse. I mean, only one team gets screwed in the deal. The other team makes out pretty good, assuming it doesn't lose anyone in the championship parade.

Game 3 winner is 11 of 11

Eleven times since the NBA Finals went to the 2-3-2 format, teams have entered Game 3 tied 1-1. All 11 times, the Game 3 winner went on to win the title.

Year

Winner

Loser

Length

MVP

2010

Lakers

Celtics

7 games

Bryant

2004

Pistons

Lakers

5 games

Billups

2003

Spurs

Nets

6 games

Duncan

2001

Lakers

76ers

5 games

O'Neal

1998

Bulls

Jazz

6 games

Jordan

1994

Rockets

Knicks

7 games

Olajuwon

1992

Bulls

Blazers

6 games

Jordan

1991

Bulls

Lakers

5 games

Jordan

1990

Pistons

Blazers

5 games

Thomas

1988

Lakers

Pistons

7 games

Worthy

1985

Lakers

Celtics

6 games

Jabbar

The NBA's Game 3 Curse is the most freaky historical stat I've ever heard when it comes to seven-game postseason series. And there are lots of historical stats in these playoff series, in any sport that has them. If you win the first two games, your odds are here. If you go up 3-1, your odds are there. Down 3-0? History says ...

Gag me. All that history stuff is nonsense. Nothing has ever been done, anywhere, until it was done for the first time. You follow? Just like records are meant to be broken, historical trends are meant to be bucked. Which means they're meant to be ignored. Because they're pointless. Stupid.

But this one ... it's freaky.

Since going to the 2-3-2 format for the NBA Finals in 1985 -- two games in one city, three games in the other, two games in the first city -- teams have split the first two games 11 times.

Hang on. Wait a minute. This isn't something that has happened two or three times, or even five times in a row. This is 11 for 11. That's ominous, considering the Heat and Mavs are tied at 1-1 entering Game 3.

Spoelstra sniffed harder.

"I think both teams have bucked a lot of those numbers and odds up to this point already," he said. "We're a nontraditional team."

If by nontraditional he meant "clueless," then yes. Miami is a non-traditional team. So is Dallas under that definition, because like the Heat, the Mavs had no idea about the Game 3 Curse.

What, you thought I wouldn't? Come on. This is crazy stuff, and anyway, I assumed they knew. Everyone else seems to know. I've heard it on TV, seen it all over the Internet. It's everywhere. Everywhere but the locker rooms of the two NBA teams about to play Game 3 in the NBA Finals.

Well, it's there now. Because I told them. And here were some of their answers.

Said Heat forward Udonis Haslem: "I hadn't heard that. It's a seven-game series. After Game 3, there's going to be a Game 4, and then obviously a Game 5. After that, we'll see."

Said Mavs guard Jose Juan Barea: "I think I heard something about that, but I didn't know the details. That's crazy, but I don't know what it means. All we're thinking is that we have a good chance to go up two games to one."

Isn't it? I mean, it's pointless and yet still so ... freaky. And up to a point, I understand how it has come to be. Look at it from the standpoint of the team that loses Game 3 to fall down 2-1. If you're not good enough to win twice in the first three games, how are you supposed to be good enough to win three of the final four? Obviously that's not going to happen very often, but still -- it should have happened at least once by now. Right? I mean, 11 times is no joke. That's a plenty big enough sample, Erik Spoelstra.

The Game 3 Curse has worked on both sides -- home and away. Seven times the road team, like Miami will be Sunday night, has won Game 3 and then won the whole thing. Four times it has been the home team, like Dallas.

The Game 3 Curse has claimed the best of the best. It has claimed the Celtics and Lakers, when the Celtics had Larry Bird 1985 and the Lakers had Magic Johnson in 1991. It even claimed the Lakers of Kobe Bryant, in 2004. Michael Jordan has contributed to the Game 3 Curse three times, leading the Bulls to victory in Game 3, and beyond, in 1991, '92 and '98.

NBA Finals: Mavericks-Heat

Analysis

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What we saw from Dirk Nowtizki on Thursday was insane. It was a great player doing what only a great player can do. Read More >>

At some point, of course, you have to look at the actual results of games in those series to see why one team really won. The Lakers beat the Pistons in 1988 not because they won Game 3, but because James Worthy put up a mammoth triple-double in Game 7 -- 36 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists -- to spark a 108-105 victory. Then again, the Lakers were around for Game 7 in part because they won Game 3. And also because they won Game 6, when the Pistons had a chance in the final seconds to win, but couldn't get off a decent shot after Isiah Thomas collided with teammate Dennis Rodman on the inbounds play, triggering offensive chaos.

Wanting to hear it from someone else, though, I took it to Mavs forward Peja Stojakovic. He has spent 13 years in the league. He has been to the playoffs 11 times. Been there? He has done that. But Stojakovic had never heard of the Game 3 Curse until I told him about it Saturday.

Stojakovic looked at me with disinterest. At first. Gave me one of those condescending Tony La Russa looks, lifting his eyebrows as he considered something not really worth considering.

Gregg Doyel is a columnist for CBSSports.com. He covered the ACC for the Charlotte Observer, the Marlins for the Miami Herald, and Brooksville (Fla.) Hernando for the Tampa Tribune. He was 4-0 (3 KO's!) as an amateur boxer, and volunteers for the ALS Association. Follow Gregg Doyel on Twitter.